FACTS which contradict what is taught in the universities and which even run counter to the assumptions made by critics of misandry.

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

The Long History of PAS (Parental Alienation Syndrome)

The Long History of PAS (Parental Alienation Syndrome)

By Richard K. Stephens (Robert Franklin, Esq., editor)

Originally publishedJun. 10, 2009, by GlennSacks.com (defunct)

***

Parental
Alienation Syndrome (PAS) gained its well-known name in 1985. But few people
know its history before then. Vocal opponents of the diagnostic term (and its
formal description) frequently claim that PAS is nonexistent and that it was
“invented” in 1985 by Dr. Richard Gardner. Are the naysayers correct? The
historical record reveals that they are not. Abundant evidence exists to
demonstrate that the particular form of nastiness which we now call parental
alienation has been around – and widely recognized – for a very long time. It
just had different names before 1985.

Pre-1985
parental alienation cases reveal a varied terminology: “(an attempt to)
alienate the affections of the child from other parent” (Ball case, 1827);
“poisoning the minds of the children against her” (Guillot case, 1877);
“secreted the children for the purpose of alienating their affections from her”
(Hyland case, 1883); “husband and his family have exercised an undue influence
over the boy and has inoculated (him) with hat red toward her, so that he is
now not desirous of seeing her” (Carter case, 1904).

There are even
pre-1985 pictures, snapped by courthouse news photographers and published for
the world to see. The top photo above, from 1952, shows 9-year-old Marlene
Matchan seated next to her maternal grandmother, hysterically crying and
shouting at her alienated mother, “Get away from me!”

Los Angeles
Judge William McKay just minutes before had admonished the grandmother (who had
been looking after the girl following the mother’s divorce) with these harsh
words: “You have brutally poisoned the child’s mind against your own daughter.
If you do not desist from further interference I will see that the proper
authorities investigate your activities.” Granny’s efforts to convince the
judge that Marlene’s mom was a habitual drunk who had in the past never
demonstrated any interest in the child simply backfired.

The shocking
photographic evidence made this case a national news story. One Wisconsin paper
ran the picture on the front page with the headline: “Child Tortured in Custody
Case.”

In the end,
Judge McKay was proved right. Once Marlene was removed from the influence of
her toxic granny, she quickly adjusted and two weeks later told the court she
was glad to be back with mom.

A similar scene
is depicted in a 1950 photo at right above. Here Starr Anne Schneider, a
tormented 10-year-old whose mother had just won custody from an alienating
maternal grandmother, resists her mom’s tender efforts to comfort her.

For a fuller
development of this research, see: Demosthenes Lorandos and J. Michael Bone, “History Of
Parental Alienation In The Courtroom,” [Mark L. Goldstein Editor, Handbook of
Child Custody, Springer, 2016;From:
Part IV, Specialized Issues; Child Custody Evaluations In Cases Where Parental
Alienation Is Alleged; Part One — Parent/Child Alienation and the Courts.]